A plan to ban tourist coaches in one of Britain’s poshest villages would turn it into a “ghost town” and destroy businesses, locals say.
Officials in Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds are considering creating a ”no go” area for buses carrying visitors.
Parish councillors say they want to tackle ongoing issues including a lack of parking in one of the area’s most popular tourist destinations.
Figures show in one year alone 238,000 people visited the village by coach or large minibus.
But local businesses say banning the buses will hit trade and fear a coach ban could turn the picture postcard village into a “ghost-town”.
Andrew Lund-Yates, 63, said his pub and hotel would lose 10% of its revenue if the plans were to go through.
Andrew bought the Old New Inn in 2018 and had planning to reinvest in the pub but there’s “no way” he’d do so if coaches were banned.
He said: “The council is interested in getting tourists out of Bourton, which is frustrating for businesses that have built their business looking after tourists. Tourists are the highest-spending visitor we have. My plan was built on coaches.
”Other businesses have limited options, the restrictions could mean the difference between them staying open and them closing. If the winter travel stops, smaller businesses might shut. We don’t want to look like a seasonal seaside village. There is a lot of worry”.
Until last year, coaches were able to drop-off passengers at a car park just outside the town centre.
But in December 2023 the arrangement between the council and the car park owner changed.
Locals say the newly refurbished car park on the other side of the town centre could be a good drop-off spot but in February it was redone without any coach spaces.
As a result, coach drivers have to use unofficial drop-off points across the town, frustrating residents who get held up when the big vehicles turn round.
Charles Watt, 67, owns a gift shop in the village and slammed the proposed plan as “ridiculous”.
He said: “The councillors should be sacked. We’ll lose a certain amount of business.
“It’s so thoughtless. They have done nothing to come up with a solution. They have not helped at all.”
James Walker, 38, runs a cafe opposite the Christmas shop his wife runs.
He said the parish’s proposal would “definitely” affect his sales.
On particular days, he said, nearly 70 percent of sales are from tourists off the coaches.
“If we prevent people from coming, footfall is going to suffer”, he said.
Usually, he expands his number of employees to 15 during the peak season.
But this year he said the uncertainty means he’ll stick to the ten he’s already got working for him.
The plan would use traffic regulation orders (TROs) to bar coaches’ access to Bourton from the A429 into Lansdowne as well as the High Street and Station Road.
The decision would require visitors to undergo a 30 minute walk from the drop-off point to get to the town centre.
Any final decision would be subject to a full public consultation and would need to be implemented by highways authority Gloucestershire County Council, LDRS reported.
Parish councillors will decide in April.
